Light Company! National Parks.

Well, the Formica-ing didn't get done today. Ray had to take Shay to the doctor, and his back is still messed up, and even with a back brace, he is still in pain.

I got caught up with folding a couple of baskets of clean laundry, unloading the dishwasher and looking for a little cordless hand vac for quick clean-ups of scattered cat litter in the dog room. The big shop vacs are good, but I want one I can use easily, and not drag out the big one.

Of course, now that I have a deposit on the Mirage, the missionaries have emailed me that they want to pick it up next week, and they were going to pay me $500 more than the little lady!

I was all set to go to WalMart to buy a cordless vacuum, after reading the reviews, when the door bell rang. A nice little old gentleman who lives down my road, was in tears and didn't know who to turn to. His English isn't too marvellous, so he is difficult to understand. He has a little lake house, it must be a third the size of mine, but he had received a light bill of over $555 for one month! Mine was $81, and I have 3 ACs, washer, dryer, electric water heater, dishwasher, and all that stuff.

How is that poor little old man going to cope with a bill like that? I called the light company for him, and after an hour and a half on the phone, they are going to send someone out to check his meter, and the reading, but not until the 14th. I also asked Ray to take my electrical testing equipment down there to see if he can see what is wrong, but he hurt too much to do it today. We are suspicious of the water heater thermostat.

Here is a follow up on the National Parks Shows:

http://act.npca.org/npca/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=26390990

THOUGHTS FOR ALL TIME
"I think the Public Lands Service Corps is a wonderful opportunity for Americans to contribute domestically to our most precious resource, our national parks and public lands. It saddens me to see our national parks in a state of disrepair--we are entrusted to take care of these treasures for the next generation. "--Thomas, from Cambridge Massachusetts, in a letter to his legislators regarding the Public Lands Service Corps Act

The National Parks are asking for donations.

This is the weather around the state of TX today:

State Highs:
Edinburg
90°F
Weslaco
90°F
Harlingen
90°F
Port Isabel
89°F
McAllen
89°F

State Lows:
Dalhart
34°F
Pampa
35°F
Dumas
36°F
Perryton
36°F
Amarillo
37°F

Here it is a dreary, rainy, dismal day.

Formica-ing Table, Cage Floor. Dep. on Mirage.

When I got up I felt like I couldn't crawl out of a wet paper bag. Just felt like my get up and go, had got off, and went. It was really humid today, so that you felt you weren't breathing hardly any air, and wished you had gills.
I was dreading having to struggle with grooming Muffie, she is such a wiggle wort. Bobbiecat's tray, with her two food bowls, was put back in my tub, ready for Muffie's arrival. There has been a step stool to help Bobbiecat jump up into the tub for a long time now, and it is even handy for me, too. No porch time for the foster cats this morning, I kept the cats in the dog room, as when Muffie arrives she stays in the house with me unless I am grooming her.

She arrived about 7.30 AM, and after inspecting everything, laid down under my bed. Now I was waiting for MaeMae's arrival. I hadn't fed the cat's yet. I was going to feed them as usual in their individual cages, but shut the doors on them this time, ready for grooming Muffie. I took all my vitamins, (I don't always remember,) as I thought it might buck me up. Then I got a call from Claudia, they weren't going on the casino trip, she and her neighbor had an argument about Jay's recent behaviour. So Muffie's Dad came and picked her up, and of course his side of the story was different!

Good!! Boarding the two dogs is no big deal, but I had been dreading grooming Muffie. When Ray arrived it meant that we could work together, putting Formica on my porch table.

We have cut up so many cat litter boxes to make triangular shipping tubes for shipping the aloe plants, that we have holes in the cutting boards. We decided to just make it like one of the work tables in the workshop which we cut on all the time, and cover it with a scrap of Formica.

Ray was still in a back brace, so I went up in the guest house attic and found a rolled up piece of Formica that was left over from the house I built in Onalaska, TX. We got it unrolled on an outside table and Ray cut it with the circular saw with the fine blade in it. He started to slather the contact cement on the Formica, when we remembered that the original top to the plant table was made out of a piece of Jay's left over siding. We unscrewed the top and turned it over, as we didn't want to use the grooved side as it wouldn't be so sturdy for cutting. Unfortunately it wasn't the normal wooden T-1-11, this was that Masonite cr*p. Would the contact cement stick to that? To try to make it less absorbent, Ray painted two coats of primer on it.

While we had the saw out, I found a piece of tub surround so he cut it the right size to go in the transporting cat cage for Patches. The person I bought it from, never did come back with the tray for it. If I put a piece of carpet in there, a cat could turn that up, and squeeze out of the bottom. So now it has a rigid bottom and they can't do that.

A lady was coming to see the Mirage, and she arrived over an hour early, I was still in my paint splattered work clothes, with my tool fanny pack on!! I hadn't even plugged the Mirage in yet. When I did, turned on the roof AC, it quickly cooled down in there. I showed her all the inside, all the cabinet storage, under the dinettes, and the fridge was even starting to cool down by then. She took it on a test drive down to the marina and back. Then the usual haggling about price, but we came to an agreement, and she left me a deposit check. Supposed to pick it up on Saturday. I called her bank near Austin, the check is good, but when I deposited it, the bank said that it can take a week to clear. When I got back, I finally let the cats out on the porch, (see pictures, enlarge if you wish), but they didn't want to stay out there very long.

We left the gluing of the table top and Formica for tomorrow, as it was so warm and humid today.

Shopping and RV Depreciation

Ray is still letting his sore back rest again today, he will be here tomorrow. But I will be grooming Muffie, so he will have to do the jobs that he can do on his own. Muffie and MaeMae, two neighbor's dogs, are arriving early in the morning, as their folks are going out of town overnight.

I went to into the next town to WalMart, Lowes, and stopped at one thrift shop. I can't believe how much a little bottle of face moisturizer costs any more!! What used to be a $3 item, has morphed into $12-30. But I did get gas for $2.11 !!

After I got home and had some lunch, I saw this about RV depreciation.

No wonder I prefer vintage, they appreciate!! And I don't have all the trips back to the dealer to have stuff fixed like a new one.

http://blog.rv.net/2009/10/the-yearly-costs-of-owning-an-rv-part-1-of-2/

Year Depreciation
1* 15%*-35%

2 10%,

3 6%

4 6%
5 6%

6 5%
7 5%

8 4%

9 4%
10 3%
11 3%
12 2%

"Note: The depreciation shown in year one is adjusted to reflect the typical dealer discounts of plus 20% from list. If it is calculated based on the suggested list price, the first year depreciation would be near 35%.
Remember, this is only a guide line, in many cases the real purchase price may be difficult to determine if a trade was involved. Therefore to get an approximate depreciated value of an RV, it may be easier to calculate the depreciation from the original suggested list price. Using this method, just substitute 35% for year one. Now, keep in mind, values may vary higher or lower based on many factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, popularity of the make/model, current market demand, vehicle condition, geographic sales area, economic conditions, and much more."

After the rained stopped, it was a great day.